Pen, Sword, Camisole

Pen, Sword, Camisole (Portuguese: Farda Fardão Camisola de Dormir) is a 1978 Modernist novel by Brazilian writer Jorge Amado.

Pen, Sword, Camisole belongs to the second phase of Amado's writing life when he had largely abandoned the realism and social themes of his earlier works and turned towards an emphasis on female characters such as Dona Flor, Tereza Batista, and Tieta.

Unlike most of the other novels, it is set mainly in Rio de Janeiro rather than in Bahia and is a satire of academic and social pretension as well as of Brazil's "New State" (as it was called during the late 1930s and 1940s) under the fascist totalitarian regime of Getúlio Vargas.

Tactics used to encourage the academy members to support their candidate include intrigue and deception as well as enlisting the help of the dead poet's former mistresses to help "persuade" some of the Academicians to vote against the Nazi (hence the reference in the title to the “camisole”).

[2] Another considers the work a repetitious bagatelle designed to settle some scores in the Brazilian literary world, with fond tributes and acid attacks.